The present invention concerns a wristwatch comprising a main unit that incorporates both the usual wristwatch functions and also an earphone function. The main unit is selectively removable from a support element that clamps it to the user's wrist, such a strap, belt, band or other similar or comparable element.
The strap or other similar element includes, or is associated with, a positioning element for the main unit, which defines a housing seating that contains the main unit so that it forms a line of continuity and bulk with the strap, at the same time protecting at least some of the operating elements of the earphone from scratches, knocks, dust or other degrading external agent.
The earphone may preferably embody also a microphone function so as to be usable as a mobile phone unit with the Bluetooth® technology or other technologies like Wi-Fi® or similar.
The ever wider and more general spread of cell phones, and the extensive technological development in the field of mobile communications, have gradually led the producer Companies in this field to elaborate technical solutions intended to facilitate more and more the use and availability of telephonic instruments substantially under all conditions of use, and providing them with ever more evolved functions.
To allow the use of the cell phone also in particular conditions, for example when the user is driving, writing or in any case in situations when the hands are occupied, the use of earphones has been developed, first of the type with a wire, and more recently of the type without any connection to the relative cell phone.
This last technology is commonly known as Bluetooth®, from the name of the most widespread protocol of wireless communication between the cell phone and the earphone, or micro-telephone.
Although in the following description we shall refer mainly to the Bluetooth® technology, the invention is also applied when other communication protocols are used, for example the Wi-Fi® protocol, or any other with the same characteristics.
To perform these functions, micro-telephone apparatuses have therefore been made, which incorporate both a receiver unit, or speaker, and also a transmitter unit, or microphone; said micro-apparatuses have an ergonomic form suitable to allow them to be fixed to the user's ear and allow him to carry out a telephone communication without requiring any other support for the apparatus.
The laws that forbid the use of cell phones when driving have led to a further stimulus to the development and diffusion of this technology.
However, it may be a disadvantage for users to have to transport and keep, in a sufficiently safe and protected place, objects such as earphones of the type described above, which are rather small and also very delicate since they are easily subject to damage and malfunctions if they are knocked, or in the event of infiltrations of dust, water or other external agent.
If carried in the pocket, they can easily fall or be crushed, and in any case they are not protected from dust or suchlike.
If they are concealed in places that are protected but difficult to get at, they may not be readily available in the case of need, for example when a phone call arrives when the user is driving.
Various solutions have therefore been proposed in which the earphone has been associated with other portable apparatuses from which it can be detached to be available for use.
However, known solutions have shown themselves to be not very effective since either they do not guarantee to protect the earphone sufficiently from knocks and external agents, or they entail substantial modifications to the shape, and hence to the portability and external appearance, of the portable apparatus or object with which they are associated; or they do not allow the earphone to be easily and quickly removed for use, and/or to be clamped securely and safely when it is not in use.
The purpose of the present invention is therefore to overcome the disadvantages mentioned above, by achieving a solution which allows an earphone using the Bluetooth® technology to be transported comfortably and easily, in a protected condition, by associating it with a wristwatch, without this association entailing any modification to the usability and portability of the wristwatch, but on the contrary providing it with a particularly effective and attractive ergonomic shape.
The Applicant has devised, tested and embodied the present invention to overcome the shortcomings of the state of the art and to obtain these and other purposes and advantages.